Voting machines have their troubles: Problems at four precincts delay election results
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The problems at four of the county’s 21 precincts materialized as returns were being totaled after the polls closed Tuesday evening, slightly delaying the announcement of the total vote. The total vote was tabulated before 9 p.m., behind anticipated schedule but still well ahead of the schedule in past years using the old Shupe-lever machines.
According to Election Administrator Donna Yates, election officials are investigating what caused the glitch in the system and are planning to meet with MicroVote representatives this week to avoid any repeat problems during the August elections. However, a preliminary examination has revealed the problems may have been caused by voter error, specifically in cases where voters cast write-in ballots.
“What appeared to have happened was that people, who were trying to cast write-in ballots, were trying to pull on the paper, not knowing the window would automatically close once they finalized their selections,” Yates said. “When they mess with the paper rolls, it can kind of mess things up. I think they were afraid whoever voted next would be able to see who they wrote in, but that simply isn’t the case.”
Yates pointed out there were no votes in jeopardy of being lost since the machines provide a dual system of recording, saving the votes on a computer card as well as providing a paper readout. The back-up system was one reason county officials opted to go with the system two years ago.
The 46 MicroVote machines were purchased at a total price of $208,000. The computerized machines are also compact and can be transported to and from the polls by election officials and make tallying the votes much more efficient.
Given the fact voter error may have caused the problems, Yates said there will be a focus on voter education before the August election to make sure voters understand how to use the machines.
“These machines are still fairly new to everyone so perhaps we need to better educate voters on how to use them,” Yates said. “This week, I believe some voters did not realize independent candidates would not be listed on the Democratic Primary so they tried to write-in the independents.
Normally we don’t expect many write-in votes and we had a lot more than expected this time.”
The machines allow a voter to write-in a vote by pressing a button which exposes a piece of paper, inside the machine, on which the voter may manually write in their choice. Once the selection is made and the person pushes the button to exit the voting screen, the write-in window is closed so no one can see who the person voted for.
While the problem exposed a potential, but fixable, problem with the machines, Yates said it is fortunate it happened now instead of August when voter turnout is expected to be much higher.
“If it had to happen, then I guess this was the best time for it to happen,” Yates said.